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Warped brake rotors


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2007 Expedition EXL, and I heard somthin dragging. I brought it straight to the shop, and was told that apparently the caliper had been sticking. The caliper was cooked, the rotor was trash and the shop decided it would be a good idea to replace both rear rotors, and both rear calipers. Those babies are a bit pricey.

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Yes....believe or not torqueing yer rims will help a lot against warped rotors. Also, keeping the back brakes in adjustment, if possible, also helps.

What about when you get new tires and the mechanic (loose)term hammers down with the big ol air impact wrench,,

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Ok lets's settle this, questions of heavy use hot and cold or gorrilla's rotating your tires.

If you get over a 100,000 miles on your breaks then its not heavy use, its the Gorrilla's rotating your tires, or you are driving a Chevy Pickup.

I get around 120,000 on a set of pads.

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Hot and cold isn't the issue, I've overheated several sets of brakes on the track and never "warped" a set of rotors. The problem comes from getting them real hot ad then stopping the car and letting the pads sit against the hot rotor. The same can be done in traffic, get the pads hot in stop and go traffic and then sit there with the brakes clamped on the rotors....hello warped brakes

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I don't know what it is, but I seem to have an ongoing problem with warping my rotors. Yeah, I drive fairly aggressively, but nothing too crazy. And we don't have that much traffic in Iowa, so it's not a lot of stop 'n' go stuff. And I sure don't ride the brakes or use the wrong foot or anything like that.

I've done all my own brake work for many years, and I know I'm not overtorquing them--I use an air impact gun to get them off and to spin the lugnuts back in place, but always do the final tightening by hand.

The one exception is my MB ML320. The rotors on that vehicle seems to stay nice and straight, and I don't drive it differently than anything else. I can't help but think those rotors must be designed better or made better.

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Cheap Chinese castings. BTW, most places use impact wrenches to run the nuts down and seat them. The shop that I use has torque limiters for tightening lug nuts. Then they finish torquing by hand. I've never warped a set of rotors, but have some peculiar habits, especially when braking. I always slow down in stages, then after stopping I let the car roll a few feet, then stop, then roll a couple more feet, then stop. I allow extra space between me and the car ahead of me for this.My brake pads last forever, and I've never warped a rotor yet.

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My Chevrolet HHR Panel warps rotors like no other vehicle I've ever owned. I'm almost to 90,000 miles and have had my rotors turned a couple times already, and I'm going to have them replaced soon. From my research it's a problem with the HHR since it's built on the Cobalt chassis- heavier body than the brakes were designed for causes them to heat up faster.

I love the car, but the brake problem annoys the crap outta me.

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My Chevrolet HHR Panel warps rotors like no other vehicle I've ever owned. I'm almost to 90,000 miles and have had my rotors turned a couple times already, and I'm going to have them replaced soon. From my research it's a problem with the HHR since it's built on the Cobalt chassis- heavier body than the brakes were designed for causes them to heat up faster.

I love the car, but the brake problem annoys the crap outta me.

I drove my buddy's HHR... noticed the same thing.

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Here's some really good info:

http://www.stoptech....brakedisk.shtml

+1 bajillion. For most small cars that do nothing other than haul passengers, regardless of driving style, the issue is usually friction material deposits. Go through a bedding process, and then don't let hot pads sit still too long, and you can save a bundle. I think with the advent of the horsepower war in the vanilla sedan market, the compounds used to get reasonable breaking whil keeping the whole setup affordable are just prone to this.

Replace rotors, pads, move on.

Only if you have money to burn. Been there, done that. Brake shake. Dealer turns the rotors under warranty (heck, why not, they can submit a fat juicy claim for 2 minutes of work). More brake shake. More turning under warranty. More brake shake.. No warranty, because the rotors are shaved down too much, and they are a wear item. Replace rotors, but not with dealer parts or dealer labor. More brake shake. Rebed. Good to go. Brake shake. repeat. Ditched the factory compound, frequency went down. Stopped putting on the e-brake when I parked if I had been braking a lot, and it pretty much went away (at least when home was like 4 seconds form the off ramp, seems to be a non issue now that I ahve several miles of local roads between highway speeds and parking).

Following your advice, I'd have gone through a set of rotors and pads about every 3k miles. Re-bedding takes about 15-25 minutes, most of that waiting for the opportunity and driving back home.

I don't know what it is, but I seem to have an ongoing problem with warping my rotors. Yeah, I drive fairly aggressively, but nothing too crazy. And we don't have that much traffic in Iowa, so it's not a lot of stop 'n' go stuff. And I sure don't ride the brakes or use the wrong foot or anything like that.

I've done all my own brake work for many years, and I know I'm not overtorquing them--I use an air impact gun to get them off and to spin the lugnuts back in place, but always do the final tightening by hand.

The one exception is my MB ML320. The rotors on that vehicle seems to stay nice and straight, and I don't drive it differently than anything else. I can't help but think those rotors must be designed better or made better.

Try changing break pad compounds. The MB probably has more expensive pads with more expensive compounds.

Cheap Chinese castings. BTW, most places use impact wrenches to run the nuts down and seat them. The shop that I use has torque limiters for tightening lug nuts. Then they finish torquing by hand. I've never warped a set of rotors, but have some peculiar habits, especially when braking. I always slow down in stages, then after stopping I let the car roll a few feet, then stop, then roll a couple more feet, then stop. I allow extra space between me and the car ahead of me for this.My brake pads last forever, and I've never warped a rotor yet.

I've adopted similar habits, and it greatly reduced brake shudder.

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What wrong with Chevy's, I got 140,000 out of the OEM brake pads on my last Silverado and I drive everything hard ...?

I was wondering the same thing. I just did my breaks, 169,000 MILES. replaced the rotors and pads all around. First time. 2500 Silverado.

My wifes old van (nissan quest) needed new rotors every 30,000 miles and my HHR had them turned twice and then replaced once before I sold it earlier this year with 45,000 miles on it.

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After reading all of this my story seems almost impossible but when I owned a Toyota Supra back in the 80's it had a problem with rotors getting warped pretty easy. Dealer told me I was probably running the car hard(true) and being heavy on the brakes. I argued that it was a sports care and they should be driven like I stole it. The car developed a slight pulsation right before we were moving to Germany with the Army.

I drove that car over 120 just to go to the PX sometimes and the brakes were used HARD for three years. I put new pads on it midtour but it never shuddered the whole time I was over there. I think it had something to do with super heating them regularly. Brought it home and traded it in a year later with it needing, you guessed it, new rotors.blink.gif

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